English fiction. To be classed with these two men is high praise for
Natty Bumpo.

161. Barnaby Rudge, the hero of Dickens's novel of that name, kept a
tame raven.

162. fudge: nonsense, rubbish.

180. Collins and Gray: English poets. William Collins, an English lyric
poet (1721-1759) was a friend of Dr. Johnson. Thomas Gray (1716-1771) is
best known by his "Elegy in a Country Churchyard."

182. Theocritus, a Greek poet of the third century B.C., was the founder
of pastoral poetry. Since his idea was the original one, his judgment of
his followers would be better than that of any one else.

190. Irving had been so long a resident in Europe that America almost
despaired of reclaiming him. He did return, however, in 1832, after
making himself an authority on Spanish affairs.

196. Cervantes: the author of Don Quixote, and the most famous of all
Spanish authors. He died on the same day as Shakespeare, April 23, 1616.

200. Addison and Steele together wrote the Spectator Papers (1711-1712),
which had a great influence on the English reading public. The Sir Roger
de Coverley papers are the most widely read of these essays at the
present time.

224. New Timon, published in 1846; a satire in which Tennyson among
others was severely lampooned.

237. The comparison suggests Bunyan's journey with his bundle of sin.

252. no clipper and meter: no person who could cut short or measure the
moods of the poet.

271. The story of Orpheus and Eurydice may be found in any Greek
mythology.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (1809-1894)

[In 1830] most of our writers were sentimental; a few were profound; and
the nation at large began to be deeply agitated over social reforms and
political problems. The man who in such a period showed the
possibilities of humor, and whose humor was invariably tempered by
culture and flavored with kindness, did a service to our literature that
can hardly be overestimated."

--WILLIAM J. LONG

Born at Cambridge, Mass., he was brought up under the sternest type of
New England theology. He graduated from Harvard College in 1829 after
writing much college verse. It was Lowell who stimulated him to his best
work. He himself says, "Remembering some crude contributions of mine to
an old magazine, it occurred to me that their title might serve for some
fresh papers, and so I sat down and wrote off what came into my head
under the title, 'The A